by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

A Tea Party group is encouraging its supporters to contribute money in an effort to draft Palin to run against Democratic Sen. Mark Begich next year, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

"You and I both know that Sarah Palin is a fighter who will stand up to Harry Reid and his pals in the Senate to protect our Constitution in issues like amnesty, gun control and our nation's crushing debt," said an e-mail from Todd Cefaratti of the Tea Party Leadership Fund.

"We know that, with Sarah in the Senate, conservatives across America can rest a little easier at night knowing that she's at the watch," the e-mail said.

Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, resigned as Alaska's governor in 2009 about 18 months before her term ended. While she has been coy about whether she'll ever run for president, Palin hasn't really talked about wanting to join the world's greatest deliberative body, as the Senate is sometimes known.

Begich is considered vulnerable for re-election and there are already two well-known Alaska Republicans who are considering challenging the Democrat. Both Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and lawyer Joe Miller -- a Tea Party favorite who became the 2010 GOP Senate nominee with Palin's help -- have already formed Senate exploratory committees.